Once upon a time.

They always say you should start any story at the beginning.

My last name is not one that is not commonly come across in day to day interactions, its the name that is stumbled over by teachers trying to call roll, grossly mispronounced by telemarketers looking to make a sale. Yet I've come to love it (I mean I've had 24 years to let it grow on me and it's not like I really can compare it to any others). My father has done extensive research into our family history and whenever I would come home from school or go home for a visit it has become a fond memory of browsing the pages of the names, dates, pictures of all these far off relatives of mine. With all my dad's work compiled in a stuffed 3 ring binder, I figured it was time to let all the information jump into the digital world.

I know this may not seem like the beginning but unfortunately to piece together the history earlier than this it requires a trip to Germany and digging through the ancestry there. So until then...

Here we begin, with a man named Hans Ergezinger.
Hans was born in 1550 in the town of Renningen, Württemberg, Germany.

Now they always say a picture is worth a thousand words so let me paint you a picture.

Renningen, Germany - where it all began
Source: Wikipedia

1550 German attire... please note the tunic/tights
combination we have going on here
Source:  K Cornell, 2006

Hans occupation is at this time unknown. What we do know is that in 1578 (at a dashing age of 28) he married a women by the name of Margaretha.

A year later they had a son whom they named Johann Georg Ergezinger. He was born August 25, 1579 in Renningen,  Germany. This would remain their only child.

Saddly at some point Margaretha dies and Hans remarried, this time to a woman by the name of Catharina Schnaufer sometime after February 1591. And I choose to believe they live happily until his death in 1617.

Don't stop now! Continue reading the rest of the story!